moxi theater

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FeaturesRight Back Into It: Ben Pu Stays TrueAt the end of most of his gigs, and in conversations with other musicians or friends, Ben Puchalski gets the question: “Dude, why aren’t you bigger?” Puchalski, these days,…Dan England · Mar 2, 2022FeaturesYou Can’t Bullshit Metal Fans: Soulfly’s Max Cavalera“Little by little, my own tastes came through for Soulfly,” Max Calverra tells BandWagon. “As I get older, you’d think I’d get more mellow. But I like the heavier and heavier stuff. When you get older, you play what you like. You play what you feel.” “Riffs are my church,” he said. “That’s my paradise. I will spend hours riffing on the guitar and just chugging on the guitar. I call it Chug Life. When you finally find a killer riff, man, it’s like you’ve won the lottery.Dan England · Feb 18, 2022FeaturesThe Collection: Better to Get Lost Than Never to Have Lived at AllOn the last day of 2021, David Wimbish, a millennial, posted a viral video on TikTok.Gabe Allen · Feb 11, 2022FeaturesCommon Ancestor: LowDown Brass Band’s New Hotness Has Roots“LowDown Brass Band has roots in the Jazz education world,” MC Billa Camp tells BandWagon, “but the Jazz education world has the habit of treating Jazz like an island. As if – Jazz isn’t birthed from the same struggle as Hip Hop. As if they are not Black father and son, born fighting the same fight.” Lowdown Nights, the latest and most future-leaning record from LowDown Brass Band, was appropriately released during Black History Month. It takes things further out of the pigeonhole and into the pan-genre stage, using the history of the African American experience as its guide. Especially with the hit single “Be The One Tonight,” they go mainstream – and that’s a good thing. The collective has enough talent within its ranks to deliver a show with as much variety as Beyoncés 2018 Homecoming at Coachella. It’s the multi-lingual, multicultural, multi-genre kind of mainstream pop and dance music that encapsulates the musical stew of 2022.Kevin Johnston · Feb 10, 2022FeaturesWriting at the Helm: Hunter James & The Titanic on the Creative Process“A lot of bands say ‘well, we can’t box ourselves into a specific genre because we play funk and jazz and rock or whatever,’” Hunter James & the Titanic says. “It’s nice to be in a band that says, ‘we play rock and roll 109% of the time.’” Hunter James & the Titanic refuse to be lured into the post-genre vortex despite that impossible percentage and their lineup of eclectic players. They play Americana — no caveats. Well maybe a couple. “I really wanted to have this band feel really focused.” Hunter James explained. “But, there’s something inside of me that won’t let me just write like that. But, we always sound like us no matter what.” In just three years, the band has put out an EP, five singles and two full-length LPs. Their latest album, 2021’s La Liberté, finds the band settled even deeper into a roots rock sound.Gabe Allen · Feb 2, 2022FeaturesRoll Over Reverend: Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band clings to nostalgia for Hard TimesThe Reverend Peyton always had an appetite for nostalgia – everything from the traditional country blues that influenced his guitar picking, to the vintage 1950’s outfits he and his wife Breezy wear on stage.Valerie Vampola · Aug 12, 2021CommunityJust Wanna Have Funds: Did the Colorado Arts Relief Grant Support the Organizations it Intended?Over 63 days, Colorado Creative Industries (CCI), created a set of criteria, launched an application, administered the selection process and allocated just under $6 million to organizations and businesses state-wide including music venues. “We were given the charge to distribute the funding as quickly as possible,” a CCI spokesperson told BandWagon. This hasty allocation of public funds was met with cynical speculation from independent venue owners who were not awarded money. Until now, the controversy over the grant has remained purely speculative. No one has pointed to specific evidence of nepotism or neglect on CCI’s part. But, thanks to the Colorado Open Records Act, BandWagon was able to obtain a copy of the scoring rubric used to evaluate grant applicants.Gabe Allen · Apr 5, 2021FeaturesTom Amend: Ditching the Band Scene for an Improvised Life~ It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing ~Valerie Vampola · Apr 3, 2021FeaturesKolby Cooper’s Best, Worst YearKolby Cooper returned through single-digit temperatures and deep snow to his East Texas home on January 17 to find the hallways full of water.Dan England · Mar 2, 2021FeaturesBattle Profile: Nelsen“The momentum was really good,” Nick Nelsen said. “We were doing four gigs in a one month span.” On the first day of February last year, Nelsen (the band) beat out Hot Tub Wrestler, Ethan More or Less and the Able Dogs in round one of BandWagon’s 2020 Battle of the Bands. The success was three years in the making. Nelsen had also competed in 2018 and 2019, never to make it past the first round. Now, armed with tearjerkers new and old, Nelsen is poised and ready to make the audience “feel” when the Battle of the Bands returns on March 12.Gabe Allen · Feb 16, 2021FeaturesBattle Profile: Lady Denim“We were starting to get the ball rolling, you know, the snowball effect,” recalls Lundeen, Lady Denim’s lead vocalist, of the band’s momentum heading into March 2020, “and then it all got paused.” Lundeen looks back on the band’s last headliner at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins, where the band walked out to a crowd of 450. At a show a month later on March 13, just as news of COVID-19 began to flare up, the band walked out to a crowd of less than 50. “The silver lining of it all was that we were able to set aside time and record,” Lundeen reflects. Trading rehearsals for recording sessions not only brought the band closer, but also yielded the seeds for what Lundeen said will be their next release.Diego Felix · Feb 15, 2021FeaturesThe Thin Black Line: Venues Fight To Survive“It’s nowhere near the money I need to sustain, but I was lucky,” says Travis Ragan. Ragan was a partner in the Roxy Theater in Denver and the Mesa Theater in Grand Junction, booking shows in 15 different markets. Now he hauls equipment for his brother, a construction manager out of Colorado Springs. “I know venues are closing down, and yet, we have no leadership backing us and supporting us. We have no one telling us what we should do as opposed to what we shouldn’t do,” Ragan says. “The place is not made to be at a 250 person capacity,” Renee Jelenik says of The Lincoln Theater in Cheyenne, “and even then, it’s not like we sold out those shows. People just aren’t coming out.” “We’ve been asked to shut down, or told to shut down, for months now,” says Ely Corliss of The Moxi Theater in Greeley. “We’ve done that, and where are we now?”Dan England · Dec 3, 2020PremieresVideo Premiere: Oliver Mueller – “I Wanna Play At The Moxi”The music video for Oliver Mueller’s new single “I Wanna Play At the Moxi” premieres via BandWagon today. Under his solo-project pseudonym oliverrr, the track is a love-letter to his favorite NoCo music venue, as performers and concert go-ers alike bemoan the absence of live music. Mueller brings the same dreamy alternative style he displays in his band Slow Caves, but combines it with punk flare and humor.Valerie Vampola · Jul 20, 2020FeaturesThe Fate Of Festival FutureEven right after she was the sickest she’d been in her life, Alison Hamling still cried after she essentially canceled Friday Fest in Downtown Greeley.Dan England · Jun 5, 2020FeaturesNoCo Music NoGo: COVID-19’s Massive Impact On Colorado’s Music Industry“It’s pretty easy to see how unprepared everyone was,” said Brian Claxton – a touring drummer and music educator based in Greeley, Colorado. Music venues, restaurants and bars across the globe and in Colorado have been ordered to close due to coronavirus precautions, essentially cutting off the lifeblood of the music industry. But the ramifications go deeper, from the 50th anniversary of the huge UNC Jazz Festival delaying one year to smaller bands such as Float Like A Buffalo cancelling their shoestring budget tours. “I think it will take a year to recover, not just in the economy but in the entertainment industry here,” Moxi Theater Ely Corliss said, “and that’s if we resume in April. If this goes until May 11 or so, it’ll be catastrophic for the Moxi and (his restaurant) Luna’s both.”Dan England and Valerie Vampola · Mar 25, 2020FeaturesCover Story: Kyle Emerson – Coming Down and Into His OwnAt the end of every show on his first tour as a solo artist, Kyle Emerson found himself exhausted.Dan England · Feb 7, 2020MusicAlbum Review: Mitchell James – Further NoticeHave you ever been so fed up with your 9-to-5 that you decided to quit your job and pursue your true calling?Doc Dee · Dec 4, 2019ReviewsAlbum Review: Lacy Jo – Self-Titled EPGreeley-based country singer-songwriter Lacy Jo’s forthcoming, self-titled EP is mainly ballads – raw songs focused on being real, which Lacy wrote based on her own life. Produced by Dave Beegle, the EP releases October 25 with a Moxi Theater show with Smooth Hound Smith.Brittany Culp · Oct 17, 2019FeaturesSlim Cessna’s Auto Club: Denver’s Dark, Prolific Mess Passes The Test Of Time“Our audiences are like us,” Slim Cessna says. “They don’t belong in any category. More often than not, they’re just music lovers, and those are the people we attract.” With 27 years as a Colorado band, and several side-projects under their cowboy belts, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club brings their macabre, avante-garde roots music to Greeley for the first time, Friday, September 20 at the Moxi.Kevin Johnston · Sep 13, 2019FeaturesMy Favorite Band Of PeoplePeter Paul & Gary (yes, Gary) are going into their 24th year as a band, and they are unoriginal in every way. Intentionally. On September 13 they will headline the 12th Annual My Favorite Bands entertaining the patrons of the Moxi Theater with a performance of, as per their own tradition, an iconic movie soundtrack. This time, it’s “Back To The Future” with Trash Cat performing Flight Of The Conchords and Matt Skinner performing Willie Nelson.Valerie Vampola · Sep 3, 2019